Monica Lee Studios

Monica Lee and Product Spotlight on Monica Lee Studios: Monica Lee (www.monicaleestudios.com) is an illustrator and designer who primarily works in the children’s market (illustrating books) and the gift and licensing industries. Monica’s children’s work includes illustrating The Jumping Hat, by Marilyn Katz about a little boy named Harry and his quest to catch a straw hat that jumped away. In addition to children’s work and other graphic design, Monica designs stamps for Inky Antics (www.inkyantics.com). She is also the designer of the Clever Parents logo, which we hope will make her famous worldwide.
We picked Monica’s brain about starting your own business, balancing work and life, exercising your creative muscle…

Clever Parents: What made you want to start your own business?
ML: I have always wanted to work for myself, even in college. When I was just out of high school, I stumbled into a job decorating a large department store. I realized I was self motivated and I liked the creative challenge.

Monica runs her business out of her home which has its plusses and minuses. The best part? “Not having to drive to work on snowy days!” The worst? “Having work spill over into the weekends.”

Which leads to the question of balance: If you never have to commute to get to work, work is always with you. We asked Monica is she had any tips for other Clever Parents about balancing work and family.

Her advice: invest some time in yourself and don’t feel guilty about it, “It really helps that my family takes what I do seriously even though I have a home office. It took me a while to take myself seriously but I keep regular office hours and have developed an after school routine that lets me get work done even when my son is home. If you are planning a new venture and don’t want to take time away from your small children set up even a few work hours in the week or on the weekend when someone else can watch your children. Don’t run errands, don’t feel guilty. It is ok to have time for your new venture, allow yourself to do it, guilt free. In a couple of years, when your children are grown you will be thankful for investing some time in yourself.”

Working out your creative muscle…
Clever Parents: Have you always been creative?
ML: “You would have to ask my mom, but I do think she really encouraged me in this area. I was shy and quiet and I decided in the third grade that I wanted to be the best artist in my class (maybe I was a bit competitive too).”

Clever Parents: For those of us who aren’t artistically-inclined, how can we inspire creativity in kids?
ML: The first thing you can do is to stop believing you aren’t artistically inclined! You BECOME what you believe. Start telling your kids that creativity applies to every area of their lives, cooking, playtime, gift giving, how you celebrate holidays. Creativity is about HOW YOU THINK, and it is a muscle that can be exercised every day. Tell them you want self-portraits for gifts on your birthday; get them to hand make birthday cards. Take them to craft stores, especially scrap booking stores, have them pick out a few embellishments and then create collages with them and old catalogs. Grandparents love anything homemade. We decorate cookies at Christmas; we all sat down one afternoon and created a portrait of our new puppy. Ask them for specific things if they are a bit lost, but if you have lots of supplies, kids will create! Keep your supplies handy and available so set-up and clean up is not a chore.

Clever Parents: How can we inspire creativity in ourselves? Monica Lee Logo
ML: Frequent places that inspire creativity, whether it is online, in bookstore, fabric stores, cooking stores or craft stores. Just hanging around or being exposed to things that your find different or inspiring helps get your mind going. Get used to thinking that creativity is an asset to every area of your life, your work life and your family life. What ever creative pool you dip your toes into, don’t expect perfection. Have a light heart, a good laugh and a good time.